Book Reviews

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Arts

'Barbara' Is Imperfect, Defiant And Wonderfully Human

7:45pm July 30, 2015

by Michael Schaub

The characters in Lauren Holmes' debut story collection are more than words on a page, says reviewer Michael Schaub. They're fully, exasperatingly real, portrayed with charm but without pretension.

Books
Arts

'Baby' Is A Pretty Feat Of Misdirection

1:34pm July 30, 2015

by Bethanne Patrick

Mary Kubica's new thriller follows a woman who takes in a runaway and her baby daughter. Reviewer Bethanne Patrick says it's a perfect setup — but the twists you expect aren't the ones that arrive.

Books
Arts

Peace, Love And Realness In A Hip-Hop History

1:03pm July 29, 2015

by Etelka Lehoczky

Cartoonist Ed Piskor has just put out the new book in his award-winning Hip Hop Family Tree series. It's an exhaustive, good-natured look at the birth of hip-hop that avoids the pitfall of voyeurism.

Books
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An Airborne Adventurer's Journey In 'Circling The Sun'

2:47pm July 28, 2015

by Jean Zimmerman

The author of The Paris Wife is back with another novelized memoir, this time of pioneering aviator (and all-around adventurer) Beryl Markham, the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean east to west.

Books
Arts

'Crooked' Nixon Knew: There Are Worse Things Than Nukes

7:03am July 28, 2015

by Jason Heller

Austin Grossman's new novel is half Lovecraftian horror, half thoughtful character study of a President Nixon who's in charge of an alternate America built not on democracy, but on dark magic.

Books
Arts

'Sandman Slim' Is Urban Fantasy With Brains, Guts And A Blackened Heart

1:24pm July 27, 2015

by Jason Heller

This trip in the NPR Books Time Machine, we're rewinding Richard Kadrey's hard-boiled supernatural noir series about a half-angel, half-human man who fights crime and occasionally saves the world.

Books
Arts

A Tale Of Tarot And Boy Wizards Takes A Disturbing Turn In 'Child Eater'

12:34pm July 27, 2015

by Jason Heller

Rachel Pollack's The Child Eater is a winning mix of contemporary horror and medieval high fantasy, stringing together the stories of two boys from two vastly different worlds.

Cover of Among the Ten Thousand Things, by Julia Pierpont.

Books
Arts

Infidelity Is Steeped In Suspense In 'Among The Ten Thousand Things'

5:00pm July 23, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Julia Pierpont's debut novel opens with a young girl's discovery of her father's infidelity. Maureen Corrigan says that what follows is so unexpected and tense that it's a "fresh pleasure to read."

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Shirley Jackson Gets To The Heart Of The Home In 'Let Me Tell You'

2:27pm July 23, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

This collection of the author's early fiction, unpublished stories and personal essays is a delightfully uneasy mix of wry family observation and the chills her eerie later work is known for.

Lovers on All Saints' Day, by Juan Gabriel VÃ¡squez.

Books
Arts

In 'Lovers,' There's A Lot To Like — And Plenty Of Self-Pity To Go Around

10:28am July 22, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

It took nearly 15 years, but Juan Gabriel Vasquez's Lovers on All Saints' Day has gotten an English translation. The collection, awash as it is in woe, is a portrait of the writer finding his footing.